John Lewis talks about a photo taken during his demonstrations while a student. (1/27/2013)
Karen Kraft / The Tennessean

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The Rev. Kelly Miller Smith, right, president of Nashville Christian Leadership Council and John Lewis, chairman of the Student Non-violence Committee of the NCLC, told a mass meeting of demonstrators May 10, 1963 at Mt. Zion Baptist Church on Jefferson St., not to protest in town until the outcome of the meeting between Nashville business officials and black leaders.(Photo: Jack Corn / The Tennessean)Buy Photo

Participants in the sit-ins that desegregated Nashville lunch counters in 1960 returned to the site of the protests Monday to celebrate their history and urge a new generation to carry the tenets of the civil rights movement forward.

U.S. Rep. John Lewis, one of the most recognizable faces of the movement, headlined the event organized by Lipscomb University’s Fred D. Gray Institute for Law, Justice & Society. Some of the city’s top leaders, including Mayor Megan Barry, were said to be on hand while Lewis and others described a through line that connects the lessons of the 1960s to the challenges of 2017.

Lewis, speaking over a live video feed from his Washington, D.C. office, trumpeted the progress made against racism, saying the American South had been improved by the “non-violent revolution” of the civil rights movement.

“Our country is a better country, our region is a better region,” he said. “We’ve come a distance, we’ve made a lot of progress.”

He left the students there with a simple charge: “Keep us moving.”

“Register to vote. Run for office. Speak up and speak out,” Lewis said. “I believe we can get it right.”

The location of the event, the site of the new Woolworth on Fifth venue and restaurant, brought extra resonance to the evening. It was the building that once housed a department store lunch counter where Lewis and his peers led the historic sit-ins.

The audience erupted into cheers several times throughout as Lewis and others described their persistence in the face of discrimination, violence and arrest.

The Lipscomb institute, named after lawyer Fred Gray who represented Lewis and other civil rights pioneers, encourages students to promote social justice and diversity through government and legal work.

Gray told the students in attendance that there was still much work to do to combat racism and inequality.

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John Lewis talks about a photo taken during his demonstrations while a student. (1/27/13)
Karen Kraft / The Tennessean